


A Lovely Light

by doves_wing (Shayna)



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Happy, M/M, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-23
Updated: 2010-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-13 23:58:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shayna/pseuds/doves_wing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of ficlets, focused around Jack/Nine/Rose, based off the Itunes Shuffle Meme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lovely Light

**Author's Note:**

> A product of my insomnia. Cookies (homemade, even) if you catch the literary/poetry reference.

1.

 

Jack lingered for two days in the Game Station.

His footsteps echoed, bouncing off tired corpses and sparking wires as he searched for a place to sleep for a while.

It didn’t feel right to move on so quickly, and so he didn’t. Dozing on a pallet he found in a storage room, Jack relished his memories of curling up with Rose on the Library couch, of annoying the Doctor while he tinkered with the TARDIS.

The shattered debris of a network station would never make a suitable pyre for their relationship, but it would have to do for now. He set a fire with the leftover wire and batteries he could find, a bodie morbid tinder that caught easily, and teleported out of the Game Station, turning his back on the warmth the flame had once afforded.

 __

 _Steady hands just take the wheel  
And every glance is killing me  
Time to make one last appeal for the life I lead_

 _(Stop and Stare- OneRepublic)_

2.

He never asked twice.

 

That was his general rule- if they didn’t want to come, it was their loss. He never had a particular affinity for blondes, nor ones that clearly were too stupid to run when they ought to- too blind to realize a broken person, not even a human, not really, when they saw one.

For all her blazing brilliance, that shone so brightly when properly prodded, the Doctor wasn’t inclined to ask her twice. But he wanted to know what made her tick, why she had the guts to swing on a chain to save a man she didn’t know, for Rassilon’s sake.

He wanted to know if it was stupidity, or conscience, or sheer guts.

So he did the logical thing.

He asked again anyways.

 __

 _If you want to  
I can save you  
I can take you away from here_

 _(All You Wanted- Michelle Branch)_

3.

Bodies rushed past in a blur, feet pounded the ground with a steady rhythm. Jack behind them, shouting something inaudible to her ears, the Doctor in front of them, not looking back.

Half a minute, fifteen seconds… they say your life flashes before your eyes, that time slows down, but those were the fastest fifteen seconds of her life.

In the crumbling wreckage, fire from the explosion not put out, it began to rain. And Jack stumbled into Rose, and the Doctor held out his hand, and she laughed.

 __

 _Then there was rain  
The sound foundations are crumbling  
To the ground comes a pyramid tumbling  
Time just floated away_

 _(Rainy Day- Coldplay)_

 

4.

The early morning light highlighted the curve of her hip as she slipped on a t-shirt three sizes too big. Jack didn’t move, just lay there in her childhood bed and watched passively. He didn’t want to move. He didn’t need to, and as the Doctor rolled over and lay a possessive arm over his waist, he didn’t want to either.

 __

 __

 _Something in the way she moves  
Attracts me like no other lover_

 _(Something- The Beatles)_

5.

As fun as the TARDIS was- and she was a beautiful girl, that was for certain, and he doubted he would find another bio-mechanoid being as gorgeous as she was in his life- Jack didn’t need her. He was happy with a Vortex Manipulator, his mind, and a set of lockpicks as he was traveling in the TARDIS.

Somewhere along the way though, he discovered it was better with two others than just one, and traveling light wasn’t as joyful as it was when you had someone to share the joke with.

 _He doesn't care where else he goes,  
He's not gonna take any extra clothes  
or extra shoes to hide his feet  
The ground is dirt, the dirt is sweet_

 _(Travel Light- Johnny Flynn and Laura Marling)_

 

6.

“Love you,”

It comes out one day, jumping from her lips with no prompting from either of their words. She kisses Jack on the cheek, and the Doctor on his forehead, in between his mildly surprised blue eyes.

It got lost in the flurry of shouts and panic as she remembered she was carrying a frying pan with eggs in it, and nearly dropped hot scrambled egg on Jack’s toes. It’s not until later that day, sweat drying on their sated, languid bodies nestled into each other like matryoshka dolls, comfortable and warm, that the Doctor murmurs into her shoulder, and Jack in her hair,

“Love you too”.

 _And I'm not gonna take it back  
Well I'm not gonna say I don't mean that  
Your the target that I'm aiming at  
And I get that message home_

 _(A Message- Coldplay)_

7.

 

When Jack looks at them like they’re salvation, like they’re something he wants desperately but cannot touch, Rose doesn’t understand. When the look comes as she wanders into Jackie’s kitchen, dressed in old pyjamas and hair unbrushed, stealing a piece of toast from the Doctor’s plate with a mumbled good morning, she is further confused.

Later, when Jack mentions that he’s been on the run for the better part of a decade, it dawns on her that the gentle normality of morning routine might be a little bit foreign to him, untouchable, even.

The next morning, she steals a piece of toast from the Doctor, and a slice of melon from Jack.

 _It's all up in the air and we stand still to see what comes down  
I don't know where it is, I don't know when, but I want you around  
When it falls into place with you and I, we go from if to when  
Your side and mine are both behind it's indication_

 _(She Is- The Fray)_

 

8.

It’s one of those things that is timeless in its simplicity.

Jack can’t remember how long he’s been on the TARDIS. It could be years or weeks for all he knows. He settled into their usual routine- land, get lost, offend someone, get jailed, escape- with little difficulty. He settled into their established home routine even faster.

He doesn’t know how old he is. He doesn’t remember the last time he thought about the Time Agency, or even Gray.

That part alarms him. He should always remember Gray.

But the gentle regularity of Rose and the Doctor lull him, and he finds he is starting to let Gray go.

Timeless familiarity, safety in deep, abiding love of two people, cradled in the warmth of one of the safest ships around, is something he can live with.

 _I find that day by day you're making all my dreams come true  
And (so) come what may I want you to know  
I'm (that I am) yours alone, and I'm in love (in love) to stay  
As we go through the years day by day_

 _(Day By Day- Frank Sinatra)_

 

9.

Her mother asks her when she’s coming back to stay.

Rose looks around Jackie’s living room. The polka dot throw pillow, the coffee table, all elements of her childhood that she had cherished, still rested where they always had. Nothing had changed. And yet…

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You can’t just keep traveling with him forever!” Her mother exclaimed.

Rose looked out the window.

“I don’t… I can’t imagine not traveling with him,” she murmured.

“Rose, everyone has to stop and settle down eventually,” Jackie stated matter of factly, putting her mug on the same coaster that sat on the coffee table when Rose was little.

All elements of her childhood… but her adult life was in the sky. She suddenly felt restless. The room wasn't the same anymore.

“As long as the Doctor still wants me, I’ll travel with him.”

“But…”

“No. I’ll always go with him.”

 __

 __

 _It doesn't mean much  
it doesn't mean anything at all  
the life I've left behind me  
is a cold room_

 _(Sweet Surrender- Sarah McLachlan)_

 

10.

Neither of their lives would follow what the rest of their generations would.

 

The Doctor looked at Jack and Rose, sleeping gently in their bed. Rose’s friends would be settling down now, getting married, and finding a more permanent source of income. Jack’s would be following the agency or military course, rising through the ranks of whatever organization they applied to be a part.

 

Rose’s friends would have kids, grand-kids, care for each new generation until they burnt out. Jack’s would fight and die in battle, or in ecstasy of some new drug introduced to the Agency population. The candle that burns at both ends burns the brightest. Even if not spent among the stars, their friends lives would be brilliant. But so would Jack and Roses.

 

They only had about a hundred years, a hundred and fifty if the Doctor could remember to get them to a planet with life-extending technology. He resolved to do that as soon as possible. Life was short, and after all, they only really had a hundred years to make it count.

 _15… there's still time for you  
22… I feel her too  
33… you’re on your way  
Every day's a new day_

 _(100 Years- Five for Fighting)_


End file.
